Millions
of Americans scoff at the idea that overpopulation causes any detrimental
effects to our land, water and air. If they knew more, they might
speak out and lead the “Charge of Enlightenment.” They would push
for change based on knowledge instead of emotions or past models.
They might thrust aside anachronistic paradigms that no longer work
in the 21st century—and apply new concepts for present conditions.

Instead,
they squeal derogatory names at those who speak up. “Quit being a
chicken little,” one reader wrote. Or, many who understand our ‘human
dilemma’ bury their heads in denial.

Meanwhile,
the August 1991 issue of Life Magazine, titled, “Shark Alert!” reported,
“The age-old struggle between man and shark has become a killing frenzy.
We slaughter 100 million sharks every year, driving them to extinction.”

Sharks
prowled the seas for the last 400 million years. But now, the predator
has become the prey. Humans kill sharks at such an alarming rate that
many varieties face extinction. Shark fins are bought by the Agger
Trading Company in New York where they are dried and resold. Hong
Kong alone buys over seven million pounds each year for shark-fin
soup.

Fast
forward to the March 2006 issue of Mother Jones News, titled, “Last
Days of the Ocean.” Researcher Julia Whitty wrote, “One of the biggest
culprits is long-lining, in which a single boat sets plastic line
across 60 miles of ocean, each bearing gangion lines that dangle at
different depths, baited with 10,000 hooks designed to catch a variety
of species. Each year, two billion long-line hooks are set worldwide
primarily for tuna and swordfish—though long-liners inadvertently
kill far more other species that take the bait, including 40,000 sea
turtles, 300,000 sea birds and 100,000,000 sharks.”

Not
only that, fishing trawler captains cut loose thousands of miles of
drift nets that get snagged on reefs. Those nets continue killing
uncounted numbers of marine life by the millions for however long
the plastic monofilament lasts: in a word—almost forever. Experts
say that drift nets represent ‘clear cutting’ under water where everything
is destroyed. It’s been called “raping the oceans with no moral or
ethical responsibility.”

Whitty
continues, “Fishing fleets in the Gulf of Mexico have dropped the
white tip shark population 99 percent since the 1950s, driving that
species into virtual extinction. These sharks are thrown dead or dying
back into the ocean; these unwanted species make up at least 25 percent
of the global catch, as much as 88 billion pounds of life eliminated,
for no reason, annually.”

If
you consider the figure of 100 million slaughtered sharks in 1991,
annually, up to 2006, that’s 14 years to slaughter 1.4 billion sharks
for their fins for human soup. If you add in 300,000 seabirds annually,
that’s 4.2 million seabirds killed in those 14 years. That’s over
a half million sea turtles killed for nothing.

Whatever
life remains in the Gulf of Mexico suffers from what is called a “dead
zone” which is an area of ocean filled with human chemicals so toxic
that few fish species can withstand it or reproduce. A deadly conveyor
belt known as the Mississippi River delivers nitrogen-laced, chemically
active fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides by the millions of gallons
hourly, twenty four hours a day. Latest research shows a 3,000 square
mile dead zone beginning at the mouth of Old Man River.

“Close
to 50 hypoxic dead zones fester on the coasts of the continental United
States,” Whitty reported. “The situation is far worse in Europe, with
14 persistent dead zones that never go away, and almost 40 others
occurring annually, the biggest and worst being the 27,000 square
mile dead zone in the Baltic Sea, which equals the landmass of North
Carolina.”

The
most horrible news stems from human chemicals poisoning coral reefs.
Because of global warming and chemicals injected into our oceans,
the exhaustive study in 2004, “Status of Coral Reefs of the World”
showed 20 percent of the world’s reefs so badly damaged they are unlikely
to recover and another 50 percent teeter on the edge of extinction…15
percent of the world’s sea grass beds have disappeared in the past
10 years, depriving marine species of critical habitat.”

“Likewise,
kelp beds are dying at alarming rates; 75 percent are gone from Southern
California alone—victims of the demise of sea otters that regulate
populations of kelp-eating sea urchins.”

Scientists
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that
oceans absorbed 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the
onset of the Industrial Revolution. Today we add 25 tons daily. This
exhaust stems from 84 million barrels of oil burned worldwide each
day. That doesn’t take include gas, wood and coal burned all over
the planet.

A
quick trip west of San Francisco during our nuclear expansion in 1945
shows the U.S. government dumped 400 barrels of radio-active waste
20 miles off shore. A recent PBS report showed all 400 barrels ruptured
with their contents dissolved into the Pacific Ocean. Can you imagine
what other nuclear countries have done with their radio-active waste?
Is it any wonder tuna, salmon and other marine life test chemically
positive and our children should not eat fish because their small
bodies can’t tolerate the doses inside marine tissue?

In
Alaska, polar bears struggle and drown with vanishing ice pack because
they must swim too far to gain the ice. Worse, toxic chemicals plague
the ice bears. Researcher Marla Cone wrote, “Polar bear cubs already
harbor more pollutants in their bodies than most other creatures on
the planet. Mother polar bears store a lifetime of chemicals in their
fat and bequeath them, via their milk, to their young. Several hundred
of the industrialized world’s most toxic chemicals like PCBs and organochlorine
pesticides such as DDT have transformed the Arctic into a chemical
repository. The chemicals magnify in animals each step up the food
chain leaving polar bears, killer whales and other predators highly
contaminated.”

Today,
in the Gulf of Mexico, leatherback turtles have declined 97 percent
in the past two decades. They feed on jellyfish, but today, shrimpers
can’t draw their nets into the boats because millions of 25 pound
jellyfish make it impossible to retrieve nets.

On
top of this ‘tip of the iceberg’ report, you may appreciate that global
warming causes horrendous storm activity in our warming oceans, so
much so, hurricane scientists call for a new category greater than
Katrina’s category 5. They expect category 6!

More
tidbits to consider:

Cruise
ships produce 30,000 gallons of sewage and 19 tons of garbage
daily which is dumped into the oceans in defiance of international
laws.

U.S.
Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) has accepted over $23,000.00
in foreign junkets to help him weaken federal laws protecting
fisheries and marine life.

Gorton’s
Seafood’s has killed 2,700 whales against international laws in
the guise of “scientific research.”

Toxic
PCBs are regulated by the FDA, but the FDA allows such high levels
of cancer-causing PCBs in farmed salmon that, if they were present
in wild salmon, the EPA would restrict consumption to one meal
per month.

Chemically
caused cancers kill millions worldwide annually.

When
does avoiding a look at one’s paradigm cause damage? Is there a time
when one’s entrenched paradigm needs digging out lest a person or
company or society bequeaths on future generations a problem that
is both irreversible and unsolvable? Is there a moral and/or ethical
question as to this kind of killing spree by a cognitive species upon
defenseless non-cognitive fellow creatures?

Am
I a chicken little? I am a realist. I am a messenger. I’ve seen what’s
coming in my world travels from the Arctic to Antarctica.

What
you must ask yourself is, “Do I want to leave this degraded world
for my children, or do I want to change it for the better?”

Can
Americans change course to a more viable and sustainable long term
future? If we add another 100 million people to this country, the
answers is: No! As I noted in the first column of this series, you
can’t see a tsunami until it hits. As you read part IV of this series,
it dawns on you that you couldn’t see any of what you’ve just read,
but it’s happening at an accelerating rate of speed--all caused by
population overload.

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How
far can we afford to expand our human numbers? At what point do we
crash head-on into the brick wall labeled “human fallout” with what
we’re doing to ourselves and all other living creatures on our planet
home? It’s a decision we better make fast. In light of reading this
report, name one advantage of adding 100 million more Americans by
2040.

“Surviving
like rats is not something we should bequeath to our children,” Jacque
Cousteau world renowned oceanographer.

To
stop illegal aliens in your community, you may follow the course of
action by Mayor Louis Barletta of Hazelton, PA. He offers a bomb proof
ordinance that takes business licenses away from those who hire illegals.
He legally halts landlords from renting to illegals. Without work
and without housing, illegals cannot stay in your community. Check
out his web site for instructions: SmallTownDefenders.com

Wooldridge
presents a 45 minute program to colleges, high schools, civic clubs,
church groups and political clubs across America titled: “COMING POPULATION
CRISIS IN AMERICA: WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.” Go to his website for
further information on booking the program. www.frostywooldridge.com

Frosty
Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families
in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents
and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. His published
books include: "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS" ; “STRIKE THREE! TAKE
YOUR BASE”; “IMMIGRATION’S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES”; “MOTORCYCLE
ADVENTURE TO ALASKA: INTO THE WIND—A TEEN NOVEL”; “BICYCLING AROUND THE
WORLD: TIRE TRACKS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION”; “AN EXTREME ENCOUNTER: ANTARCTIA.”
His next book: “TILTING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INTO A SWAMP.” He lives
in Denver, Colorado.

Today,
in the Gulf of Mexico, leatherback turtles have declined 97 percent in
the past two decades. They feed on jellyfish, but today, shrimpers can’t
draw their nets into the boats because millions of 25 pound jellyfish
make it impossible to retrieve nets.